Feb 8, 2008

Peaches - Breskvice

Breskvice (peaches) are very traditional in all the countries of formerly Yugoslavia, and are a must at weddings, holidays and any special occasion. Of course I would, from time to time, come up with a special occasion just to make them : )There are many recipes out there, and really you can’t go wrong with any of them, the method is pretty much the same, and you can jazz up the filling any way you like, you‘ll see. I go traditional way, with peach jam (my homemade, and you can use whichever jam you like), walnuts, and crumbs from the cookies, as well as more kid friendly, or shall I say Chocoholic friendly version with Nutella instead of jam, mhmm….I have adapted this version of bisquits from Croatian Herald, and I use a filling from a recipe of unknown source. The "styling" process is my own making :)

BRESKVICE (Peaches)For the cookies (about 16):300 grams of flour150 grams of butter or margarine100 grams of fine sugar1 egg2 Tbsp of sour cream½ package of baking powder (7 grams)Now, if the above quantity is not enough for you, double it!For the filling:Crumbs from carving the peach halvesAs needed peach jam (or some other jam)Ground walnuts (or some other nuts)Filling option 2:Instead of jam, use Nutella, the rest is samesome rum, if you like

In no particular order, mix all the ingredients until smooth. It may seem at the very beginning like that is just not going to happen, but just keep mixing.Now wash your hand, and then oil them, and start making little balls a bit smaller than a walnut. Place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, and bake them in the preheated oven, 385 ° F, for about 15 minutes.

They will still be white, so don’t think they are not done, don’t burn them, take them out, cool them for a bit, just enough to handle them in your hands, and with a small knife, or some other tool, carve holes in each of the halves, very carefully. C’mon, it’s so worth it! : )

Leave the crumbs you are getting, and when you are done, “grind” them through your fingers to get finer crumbs, and now add as needed, or to taste, jam, and walnuts, to make filling thick enough to fill the halves, and when sticking two together, to be able to hold it. Remember you can substitute jam with Nutella, for filling option 2.

Now that you have little pale peaches, prepare two cereal bowls, or some other bowls, with 100 ml of milk in each, mix in 2 Tbsp of sugar in each, and couple of drops of yellow food dye in one, and couple of drops of red food dye in the other bowl, and mix a bit. Add flavoring (I use vanilla), but you can also flavor the red with strawberry, and yellow with mint, or flavor both milk mixtures with banana or some other flavor, or you know what, just play with it!!! Also prepare sugar for dipping in a plate or something of that kind.

Quickly dip each peach in yellow milk, and then in red milk, but not one peach half in one color, and one peach half in other, rather dip them in the manner in which each half will get dipped in both colors, for more natural looking peaches : ) Now, I pat them with paper towel for a second or two, to make sure they are not to wet for the next step, rolling them in the sugar. I learned this over time, and you will get better every time, and they will look better, and better, and you will play with flavors.

When you are done with coloring all the peaches, and rolling them in sugar, let them sort of rest overnight , and enjoy!

25 comments:

Hi! Your breskvice look beautiful, i was really surprised to see them on tastespotting, i immediately thought it's someone from slovenia because we do them here, too. Close enough! :) Nice looking blog, too!Greetings from slovenia,Maja :)

Medena, your peaches are so cute! The similar version is popular in Russia, too. We call them "apricots" which is pretty close :) The cookies are usually dipped in carrot and some red berry juice for coloring.

HVelic - no need to have them sit, they are the right texture right away! This is a great recipe, my friend has another one, which gives me more “biscuity” result; I'll see if I can get a permission to post that one... in any even this one is awesome too!Thanks for stopping by! :)

My family is croatian, well, my father's side is, and everytime we get a family gathering, mostly xmas and weddings, there's always these cookies and me and my sisters just grab plates of them!! XD haha

I've been trying to figure out how to do them, my dad's aunt gave me a croatian website with them, but i cant read croatian...and translating it didnt work at all XD